The Hunter
by Jimboy21
Summary: A man who lives an isolated and quiet life is taken by surprise.


Chapter 1

Nick drove slowly up the dirt track towards his small isolated wooden cabin. It was the kind of place you might imagine seeing in a cliché horror film, where a group of unfortunate teens would be attacked by a psychotic killer. This was because it was located on the side of a hill in the middle of a forest, a few miles from a small town in Pennsylvania. But Nick liked the solitude, he felt it gave him the unique chance to live the undisturbed life he wanted.

He was driving home from the shipping warehouse he worked at in the town. He didn't like the job much, but he had to earn money somehow. He and his wife had just recently divorced, so he didn't have much money after he was forced to split half of what savings they had. It wasn't because they had a bad relationship, in fact Nick was quite a loving husband. It was simply because he arrived home one day, to find his wife with another man. That was one of the few times Nick had shown his darker temper. Afterwards, his wife's secret lover left with a broken nose, and nearly all his fingers broken after having them smashed with a hammer. When confronted about it, she simply told him she didn't like the idea of being with the same man for the rest of her life. She said she would eventually have been driven made by Nick's presence, or existence in their home. After the truth came out, Nick immediately filed for a divorce, feeling betrayed and furious.

It had all happened a couple of months ago, and Nick was already feeling adjusted to his new life. As he drove along the track, he could hear the trees rustled gently in the cool breeze, and could focus on nothing other than the breath taking view of the snowy mountains on the horizon. He loved it all, and for one of the first times in his life, he felt like a free man.

He rounded a gentle bend and his home came into view behind a patch of trees. He pulled his pickup truck in front of his cabin and turned off the engine. He then grabbed his work bag off the passenger seat, and got out. As he walked from the truck to his front door, his mind pondered with the decision of what to do as the evening drew in. He was almost zoned out as he entered his cabin, and put his keys in a pot on a table by the front door.

He then put his bag down on the kitchen work surface, and began unpacking it. It held normal work things, paperwork, his ID lanyard, etc. When he was done, he grabbed a bottle of beer out the fridge, and went and sat down in front of the TV. He kept flicking through channels, and taking a swig of beer every now and then.

"Nothing interesting on", Nick thought to himself.

He then looked the clock on the wall, it was only quarter past six. It wouldn't even be getting dark for over an hour. Nick slumped back in the chair. "What to do?" Nick mumbled. This was the one thing he had to admit, it could sometimes get kind of boring living in the middle of nowhere.

Nick swigged the last of his beer, and put it down on the coffee table in front of him. "Might as well have another beer", he sighed. He then got up out the chair, and walked over to the fridge. He was about to grab another beer bottle, but stopped when he actually took notice to the contents. He was virtually out of food, all he had was a jar of jam, a carton of milk, and some leftover mac and cheese.

"Shit, out of everything to do today, I forget to go shopping" he sighed with annoyance.

Closing the fridge, not feeling in the mood for another beer now, he looked out the window. The sun was just beginning to lower down, but was just above the horizon. Nick then had an idea. Town was too far to drive again, and he was in need of food.

"I guess I could go out on a quick hunt" he thought. "While the light is still here".

He then walked over to his gun cabinet, sat in the corner of the lounge. After unlocking the coded padlock, he opened the cabinet. He then reached in and pulled out his Remington 700 BDL rifle. After grabbing some ammunition and locking the cabinet, Nick grabbed his coat and beanie hat and headed outside.

Now you may think Nick was cold hearted for hunting deer, but he had his reasons. He only went deer hunting when short of money and in need of food. Also, venison is a really good meat for humans.

Once outside, Nick locked his front door and looked at the forest. There was hardly any breeze at all now, perfect conditions for deer hunting as a buck wouldn't be able to catch the scent of the hunter. Nick started heading out into the forest. He loaded his rifle when he was amongst the trees. He then began to slowly walk through the forest, looking all around himself to try and spot a nearby buck. He took every step carefully, avoided twigs and dry leaves to make himself as quiet as possible. Time seemed to pass slower when he was on constant guard, listening for the slightest movement.

After about twenty five minutes of creeping through the forest, Nick spotted something.

"Deer tracks" he said to himself. He knelt down to get a closer look. "Fresh as well".

He started to follow them, keeping his finger around the trigger of his rifle. They carried on for about a hundred feet, before Nick spotted a large buck about twenty five feet in front of him. He crept beside a tree, and knelt down with his head just above a shrub. The buck had no idea he was watching.

"Gotcha" he whispered.

He then raised his rifle and aimed at the bucks head. He then held his breath, and slowly, began to squeeze the trigger, about to end the bucks life in a split second. But suddenly he spotted something that shocked him. Emerging from the shrubs, was a beautiful young fawn, the buck was obviously it's parent.

A feeling of guilt filled Nick's stomach. He lowered his rifle and sighed. He may be happy to kill a deer, but killing a deer next to it's fawn was just cold.

"Guess I'll be going hungry" he said overcome with compassion.

The longer he looked at the fawn, the more guilt he felt. It came back to him all the times he had hunted deer's, and probably left the fawns without a parent. Sighing, he then shouted out to the buck.

"Go on, get out of here, shoo" he shouted.

The buck took one sharp look at him, and sped off into the trees, followed closely by the fawn.

"I think I'm going soft" Nick chuckled to himself. He stood up from the shrub and put his rifle on safety mode. He then slung it on his back and started walking back to his cabin. He knew he would be going hungry, but that didn't really bother him.

"I guess it'll be the crap leftover mac and cheese" he thought to himself.

As he walked through the forest, he took in the scenery. It was easier this time as he wasn't on constant guard to spot a deer. "One of the few calm places to live in this world" Nick thought. The forest almost reminded him of England when he visited there with his parents when he was a kid. He had gone to Devon and visited the forests there. For him now, it was like seeing that image as a kid again.

The sun was nearly below the horizon when he reached his cabin. Whilst unlocking his door, Nick turned and looked at the orange light filling the sky above the forest and mountains. Beautiful was the only way to sum it up.

When Nick got in his cabin, he leaned his rifle against the wall. He then got the leftover food out the fridge, and put it in the microwave to heat it up. While his food was cooking, he unloaded his rifle and locked it back in the cabinet.

"One of the few times I come back from a hunt with nothing" Nick sighed.

A few seconds later, the food finished. After dishing it up, Nick went and sat down at his kitchen table. As he slowly ate the old leftovers, a few things crossed his mind. All the memories of the unfortunate events that had happened to him in the past few years came flooding back. He stopped eating and walked over to his fireplace. On top was a framed picture of him aged 9 and his mum standing in their old house.

"First you depart mum" Nick sighed, "Then Carol leaves me for a middle class rich guy".

It had been about 2 years since Nick's mum had passed. This had left him with a piece of his heart missing, and changed him into a different person. He no longer showed emotion on the outside, but was usually in pain on the inside. He often suffered nightmares about his parents, as he'd also lost his dad when he was only a child.

Nick stood looking at the picture for an uncertain amount of time, but it was long enough for his food to go cold.

"It was crap anyway" he muttered as he chucked the remainder of it in the bin.

He then went and sat in front of the TV, hoping to find something interesting on. He kept flicking through the few channels it had until he saw the weather forecast was on.

"Heavy rain and thunder is expected around 11 o'clock tonight, if your outside be wary of floods" said the forecaster.

"All I need" sighed Nick, leaning his head in his hand.

He looked at the clock on the wall, it read just after 9pm.

"Only a couple of hours away" he muttered.

He then yawned, "Still early and I'm already beat".

He turned off the TV, and the lamp on the table by him.

"Best get some sleep, I've got work first thing"

After locking all the windows and doors, Nick walked to his bedroom. He sat down on his bed and looked at the nightstand next to it. He opened the drawer, and pulled out a Smith and Wesson M&P revolver. He held the weapon in his hands, before opening the chamber to check if it was still loaded. After seeing there were six bullets in the chamber, Nick laid the gun on the nightstand. Living out in the middle of nowhere, he was always careful with self-defence as no one could rush to help if you were in trouble. He then removed his shirt and shoes and laid down on his bed to go to sleep. He lay there for a little while, just staring at the ceiling which was slightly illuminated by the moonlight. Slowly, he began to drift off to sleep.

* * *

A few hours later, Nick awoke. He looked at the clock radio on his bedside table, it was only 1am. The wind was howling outside, and the rain was pounding down loudly. Nick rubbed his eyes and turned over in his bed, slowly shutting his eyes to try to go back to sleep.

All of a sudden, there was a loud screeching sound outside. Nick shot up in his bed.

"That sounds like a plane going down!" he worryingly said to himself.

He just listened as the sound got louder and louder, until there was an almighty crash outside.

Not being able to think straight with panic, Nick quickly threw his shirt on but forgot his shoes as his rushed to his bedroom door. Before leaving, he quickly turned and looked at his revolver. He knew even if there was a crash site, there could still be bears or wolves outside. He quickly grabbed his gun and a torch, and rushed outside in the rain and thunder. He could see a glow amongst the trees, obviously fire from the crash. Nearly slipping over from the wet mud, Nick rushed into the forest to search for survivors.

"HELLO, IS ANYONE THERE!" Nick yelled hoping for a response.

There was nothing, just the sound of the storm blowing the trees around. Nick was getting closer to the crash site, and could see flames in between the trees.

Jumping over roots and running through leaves, Nick reached the crash site. He got quite a shock with what he saw. The plane had hit the ground straight on the bottom of the fuselage, resulting in a long ditch stretching about 50ft. The wings and back had been broken off by the trees, starting fires from leaked fuel. The front of the plane had come to rest pushed into the ground, with dirt covering the cockpit. To Nicks surprise, it was like a fighter jet, but none had ever seen before. He had never seen this shape of jet, or the strange red logo next to the cockpit window, which looked like a fox with wings.

Luckily, the cockpit wasn't engulfed in flames, so Nick climbed onto the jet and began scraping the dirt away. Once he had cleared the dirt away from the window, he flashed his torch inside to see if the pilot was alive. But when he saw the pilot, the hairs on his neck stood up.

**Hi everyone,**

**This is my latest story, I hope it's alright,**

**Please go easy in the comments,**

**I'll update as soon as I can,**

**See you soon,**


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